Republican Speaker of the House from Ohio John Boehner. USA TODAY file photo

Written by

Ari Rabin-Havt

Speaking with reporters in Illinois, the Senate's No. 2 Democrat, Dick Durbin, observed that Congressional earmarks were "the glue that held everybody together" and said he had spoken with the Obama administration about ways to restore the practice.

Derided as pork barrel legislation, conservatives and the Tea Party claimed earmarks led to wasteful government spending, while liberal activists such as Harvard Professor Lawrence Lessig argued they were a "cancer, ... because they feed the system of corruption."

The result of this demagoguery: a ban on earmarks in 2010 that did not shave ...